


Good Friends He Hath; And Loyal Too

by 1f_this_be_madness



Category: Hamlet - Shakespeare
Genre: And I mention the fact that Yorick died and King Hamlet dies so play spoilers, And since it is the day before Halloween...cheers!, Friendship!!!!, Gen, I always wanted to know HOW Marcellus and Barnardo knew Horatio, This would be considered a prologue to the text of Hamlet I guess, because Horatio really needs it, friendship is important, this little work is all about friendship, well enough that they were willing to trust him with the information about seeing a ghost
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-30
Updated: 2015-10-30
Packaged: 2018-04-28 23:30:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5109503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1f_this_be_madness/pseuds/1f_this_be_madness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Whenever Prince Hamlet is visited by his dear friend Horatio, there are always two guards outside the door...and stopping to converse with them is only natural.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Good Friends He Hath; And Loyal Too

Horatio comes to visit his greatest and dearest friend, the noble prince of Denmark. He arrives late in the evening, after Hamlet has held meetings of state and now sups in the great feast hall of Elsinore. Horatio must wait to be admitted, and so strikes up a conversation with Marcellus and Barnardo, the two guards outside the gate. 

The yeomen take a liking to this quiet scholar who never puts on airs, though his learned position (and closeness to the prince) grants some allowances if he were to do so. Horatio is common-born, however, and so feels connected to this pair in ways that other more typical gentlemen scholars may not. 

They pass around food and sips of warm ale on this cold night. Marcellus gives Horatio a pair of thick guardsman’s boots, since Horatio’s scholarly slippers are rather thin. The three take turns singing snatches of tunes from their villages—Barnardo has a lovely rich tenor voice and Horatio is a baritone, while Marcellus rounds out their company as a throaty rough bass. Sometimes they play dice or cards; Marcellus teaches Horatio how to gamble and teases Barnardo for losing everything he had. Horatio quotes and translates epic poetry for the others—Marcellus is most interested in tragic epics, such as Homer’s Iliad and the works of Sophocles and Euripides. Barnardo is fascinated by adventure tales and comedies—The Odyssey, Aeneid, and Aristophanes’ play Lysistrata intrigue him. Horatio was rather embarrassed when asked to explain that third work aloud because of its vulgar nature, causing the two guards to tease him mercilessly. They speak of the serving girls with whom they wish to dally—at times in such crude terms that Horatio loudly whistles the tunes of his homeland so as to drown his friends out.

Sometimes they talk of military martial history or the roles of men and women. Horatio asks the guards about Prince Hamlet’s relationship with Ophelia, and whether or not he is deeply devoted to and attached to her. They laugh at Old Hamlet’s drunken brother Claudius and his ridiculous escapades, and marvel at the endless extent to which Queen Gertrude fawns over her son—without fail!—whenever he comes home. King Hamlet is more aloof, and Marcellus very much doubts that the good king will smile at his court jester today. Apparently, the current fool does not hold a candle to the previous jester, a jolly soul named Yorick who had been devoted to the prince nearly since his birth. He seemed a surrogate father to Young Hamlet, Barnardo said. Each man thinks of his own father now, and remembers episodes from childhood—learning Bible verses by heart in the chilly schoolhouse, and trying to properly make one’s mark with a battered quill. Dreaming of someday becoming a scholar or a soldier—though, for a time, he wanted desperately to be a gravedigger, Marcellus confided. The other men stare at him askance until he grows defensive. It’s a noble tradition, to bury the dead. Besides, SOMEONE’S gotta do it. What changed his course? Barnardo asked. Worms. Couldn’t stand the buggers. He’d rather freeze his bum to ice while holding a heavy longsword before facing the probability of encountering worms among, and within, corpses. After the teasing laughter subsides, each man ponders his personal fears and all feel grateful for each other.

The guardsmen seek out news of Horatio from the prince whenever he arrives, and whilst at the Wittenberg school, Horatio inquires after them. The connection of camaraderie and loyalty stretches strong between these three; so when in a state of uneasiness about the state of their nation, when a spirit striding atop the battlements is seen, Marcellus and Barnardo put their trust in only one man: the good scholar Horatio. And he is quick to come to aid them, though he has doubts about the reality of this spirit they have seen. Yet he too mourns the recent loss of the good old king, and carefully plots the most prudent course of action.

**Author's Note:**

> My deepest thanks go out to the Bard for penning this marvelous play so that I can forever obsess over it.
> 
> I always found it quite sad that, in Act IV, Scene vi, when a message is brought to Horatio he says: "I do not know from what part of the world I should be greeted, if not from Lord Hamlet." Does he truly think that Hamlet is his only friend? The only person who values his decency and generosity of spirit and of time?! Surely not! And so I felt that more attention must be paid to the two guards who brought the attention of the Ghost to him, and by extension, to Hamlet. Cheers and thanks to Horatio, Marcellus, and Barnardo's most excellent friendship!!!!


End file.
